Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-05-06
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject: Behind the Counter"


Lydia, a seller Of purple, Of the city Of Thy
Ctird, iUhich iCOrShipped God, heard us, irhoSe
nenrt the Lord opened Acts xvi. IL. "SeeSt
thou a man diligent IN his buSineSS7 He
shall stand before kings. Proverbs xxi, %,
The first passage introduces to you Lydia, a
Christian merchanteSs. Her business is to
deal in purple cloths or silks. She is not
giggling nonentity, but practical woman,
not ashamed TO work for her living. All the
other women of Philippi and Ihyatira have
been forgotten; but God has made immortal
in our text Lydia, the Christian saleSwO-
man.
The other text shows you a man with head,
and hand, and heart, and foot all busy toiling
on up until he gains a princely success.
''Seest thou man diligcnt in his buSneSSi he
shall stand before kings Great encourage
ment in these two passages for men and
women who will be busy, but no solace for
those who are waiting for good luck to show
them, at the foot of the rainbow, a casket Of
buried gold. IL is folly for anybody in this
world to wait for something TO turn up. 1t
will turn down. The law of thrift is as mex
Orable as the law of the tides Fortune, the ma
gician, may wave her wand in that direction
until castles and palaces Gomez but she will, af-
ter while, nveTt the same wand, and all the
splendoTs will vanish into thin air. There are
certain styles Of behavior which lead to use
fulneSs, honor and permanent success, and
there are certain styles of behavior which
lead to dust, dishonOr and moral default. |
would like to fire the ambition OF young peo-
pie | have no sympathy with those who
would prepare young folks for life by whit
ting down their expectations. That man or
woman will be worth nothing to Church or
State who begins life cowed down. The bust
ness of Christianity is not to quench but to
direct human ambition. Therefore it is that
! come out this morning and utter words of
encouragement to those who are occupied as
gAo
houses of the country. You say 'Why
select one class, and talk to one specially this
mOrning~ For the same reason that
a surgeon does not open the door of a hospital
and throw in a bushel of prescriptions, saying:
Come, now, and get your medicine" He
first feels the pulse, watches the symptoms,
and then prescribes for that particular case
So to-day must be specific The people in
this audience who are clerks are not an
exceptional class They belong to IA great
company of tens of thousands who are, in this
country, amid circumstances which will
either make or break them for time and for
eternity. | should be very slow to acRnow-
ledge that the clerks, male and female, of
other cities, are any more honest or faithful
than the clerks of our own city. Many of
these people have already achieved a Chris
tian manlinesS and a Christian womanliness
which will be their passport to any position.
have seen their trials. | have watched
their perpexitics. There are evils abroad
which need to he hunted down. and dragged
out into the monday light
In the first place, | counsel clerks to re.
member that for the most part their clerk
ship is only school from which they are to
be graduated 1t takes about eight years to
get one of the learned professions 1t takes
about eight years to get to be a merchant
Some of you wi IL be clerks all your lives,
but the vast majority of you are only i'll
transient position. After while, some
December day, the head men of the firm will
call you into the back Office, and they will say
to you Now you have done well by us;
we are going to do well by you. We invite
you to have an interest in our concern" You
will bow to that edict very gracefully. Get
an old comrade will meet you and
say: what makes you look so happy to-
night :" co." you will say, nothing, moth
ing" But in few days your name will
blossom OH the sign Either in the store or
bank where you are now or in some other
store or bank you will take higher position
than that which you now occupy. So | feel
to-day that am standing before people who
will yet have their hand on the helm of the
worlds commerce, and you will turn it this
way OF that; now clerks but to be bankers, inn
porteiS, insurance company directors, ship
pers, contractors, superintendent of railroads
your voice mighty con Change"-standing
tpipIlIOSI III NllS SICdU uHdIlClell anu ~
ligious enterprises of the day. For
though we who are in the professions may,
on the platform, plead for the phianthropieS,
after all, the merchants must come forth
with their millions to sustain the movement
BE, therefore, patient and diligent in this
transient position. You are now where you
can learn things you can never learn i'll any
other place. What you consider your disad
vantages are your grand opportunity. You
see an atfiuent father some day come down on
prominent street with his son, who has Just
graduated from the University and
established him in business, putting
one hundred thousand dollars of capital
in the store. Well, Won are enviouS. You
say: "Oh, if only had a chance like that
young man-if only had a father to put one
hundred thousand dollars in a business for me,
then would have some chance in the world"
Be not envious You have advantages over
that young man which he has not over you.
As well might | come down to the do ks
when vessel is about to sail for Valparaiso,
Narrows." Why, would sink crew and cargo
before got out of the harbor simply because
know nothing about pilotage Wealthy sea
captains put their sons before the mast
for the reason that they know that it is thu
only place where they can learn 10 I've success
full sailors 1t is only under drill that people
get to understood pilotaga and navigation,
and want you 20 understand that it takes
no more skill to conduct vessel out of the
harbor and across the sea, than to steer a
commercial establishment clear of the rocks.
You see every day the folly of people going
into business they know nothing
about. man makes a fortune i'll one
business; thinks there is another occupation
more comfortable; goes into it and sinks all.
Many Of the commercial establishments OF
our cities are giving to their clerks merCan.
tile education as thorough as Yale, or Har
ward, or Princeton, are giving scientific at
tainment to the students matTicuated. The
reason so many men are laundering ir
business from year to year, is because theii
early mercantile education was neglected
Ask these men high in commercial circles
and they will tell you they thank God fol
this severe discipline of their early clerk
ship. You can afford to endure the wilderness
march iii is Going 10 end in the VINEYARDS ant
orchards of the promised land But you say
"Wil the womahly CLERKS in our torres have
promotionF Yes. Time is coming wher
women will be as well paid for their toll il
mercantile circles as men are now paid fol
their toll. Time is coming when n woman
will be allowed to do anything she can de
well 1t is only little while ago when womel
knew nothing of biography, and they wcr
kept out OF a great many commercial circle
where they are now welcome; and the tim
will go on until the woman who at one coun
ter in a store sells ten thousand dollars wort
of goods in year, will get as high saar,
as five mnu who ~ The other counte
OF the same store sells ten thousand dol
lars worth of goods. All honor tC
Lydia, the Christian saleswoman. And il
passing, may as well say that you merchants
who have female clerks in your stores ought
to treat them with great courtesy and kind
ness. When they are not positively engaged
let them sit down. In England and Tho
United States musicians have protested
against the habit of compelling the womanly
clerks in the stores to stand when it was no
necessary for them to stand. Therefore, | ado
to the protest OF physicians the protest of tn